French Macarons, Take I

I have always been enticed by the beautiful colors and dainty appearance of French Macarons. When I was visiting my sister in Charlotte last summer, she took me to Amelie's French Cafe/Bakery where I got to taste one for the first time.  It was instant love.  Soon after I bought a book on Macarons and have been reading it and staring at it, and reading it and staring at it since then.  I was definitely intimidated because of all the things it said can go wrong for the amateur Macaron baker (that's me!).  They refer to Macarons as "troublesome" and that didn't do a lot for my confidence. The weather can't be too humid or too dry, all ovens bake differently, stacking baking sheets is recommended but you don't know if 2 are good or if you need 3.  Parchment or Silpat?  Aged egg whites. Don't fold too much, but make sure you fold enough.  Confidence & the courage to get started are a must.

Well it took me 7 months but I finally got up the courage to try. All seemed to go quite well.  The only area I was really concerned about was folding in the food coloring.  It instructed me to fold the egg whites and dry mixture 90%, then add the coloring and then finish with 1-2 more strokes.  No way can you fold anything thoroughly in 1-2 strokes.  I tried to use as few as possible, but it took me more like 6-8 strokes and at that I left the batter marbled.

Now it's time to pipe them out onto the parchment paper.  While I attempted to make each one uniform in shape and size, it was a bit difficult without any prior practice.  Not bad though.  I was not very successful in releasing the pressure without leaving a "tail".  I dropped the baking sheet on the counter several times and was able to lessen the tails, but unable to make them vanish altogether. (I later read that my mixture was not folded enough, surprisingly.)

All things considered, I am quite pleased with the results, and after reading the Troubleshooting section of the book, am prepared for a Take II.  I aspire to be an expert by Take III, well at least by Take IV. :)

As you can see by the photo, I made pink, green & lavender shells.  Since they are made with almond flour, they have a very delicate almond flavor.  I filled the pink ones with strained raspberry seedless jam, the green ones have crunchy chocolate ganache w/cacao nibs and the lavender with a blackberry butter cream.

I am not providing the recipe this go-around as I need to understand more of the science and the whys and wherefores of the structure of the macaron shell.  When I build more confidence and can make them without trembling hands and heart palpitations, I will then publish the recipe I used. Look for Take II followed by Take III, and hoping to end with the trilogy.

C'est bon!